Thursday, August 08, 2019
Fallen
- Commentary: Okay. So this is the "bad, bad, really bad" Denzel Washington movie to which I refer in the this post. It's got a lot of great actors in it, too, John Goodman, for instance, Embeth Davitz, Donald f-ing Sutherland, for godssakes, so I have to assume that all these amazing actors were probably in need of money and needing to keep their craft polished (and, perhaps, their names, as well). Frankly, I can only imagine that this movie would have been glorious fun to do, especially with the gang of top-notch actors involved. And every single one of the top shelf actors delivers, sometimes a little over the top, it's true, but I think they're allowed and, anyway, the story takes itself so seriously as a horror set-up that the whole production is pushed over into the realm of unintentional hilarity. Or, maybe the hilarity was intentional.
If I had not received this as a bonus tagged onto a movie I wanted, I'm sure I not only wouldn't own it, I would not check it out, once having read the case description, despite the talent line-up. I have to also believe that none of the actors would have participated in this if their involvement did not fulfill some immediate material and/or professional need. Maybe, that's what makes this film fun to watch (although I've only watched it once, giggled and laughed through the whole showing, and I doubt I'll ever watch it again). Everything about it is desperate; desperately bad, that is, except for the performances, and that's what makes this film a wonder to behold. I'm attaching only one tag to this movie, because that's all it deserves. I'm grinning while I attach the label, though. In fact, as I close off this review, I'm seriously considering watching this movie again ... just for fun, and to experience, again, the unbelievability of it all.
Frankly, I'm surprised Roger Ebert reviewed this movie, at all, let alone gave it an above-middling review. I've attached his review to the title of this post. Check it out.
Update 8/4/21: Some time earlier this year, I decided to attach two more tags to this movie, one of them being "popcorn-and-soda", referring to the experience of watching it, of course, not the movie, itself. Although ...
Actor Role Actor Role Actor Role Actor Role Denzel Washington Det. John Hobbes John Goodman Det. Jones Donald Sutherland Lt. Stanton Embeth Davidtz Grett Milano James Gandolfini Det. Lou Elias Koteas Edgar Reese Gabriel Casseus Art Hobbes Michael J. Pagan Sam Hobbes
The Wikipedia write-up for the movie is here.
Release Date: 1998
Directed by Gregory Hoblit.
Labels: denzel-washington, donald-sutherland, film-noir3, horror1, popcorn-and-soda2, religion1
